Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-05-08

stroys individual responsibility and is g
: dangerous infringement on the personal
liberty of the citizens. James 1. issued
q proclamation prohibiting the use of
tobacco; the Puritans of the Long
Parliament required Christmas to
be kept with religious ceremonies,
not with festiYitY and merriment They
directed all the May poles to be hewn
down, closed the theaters and prohibited
horse racing. Charles II. attempted
to close the coffee-houses of London. We
seem to be about to travel around the
same circle and repeat the same acts of
folly.
Prohibition of the sale of wine, beer,
ETC., will become the precedent for addi-
tional legislation, and tobacco will pretty
soon arouse the Indignation of those who
! fancy men can be reduced to ma
chimes by statute. The Express pro-
poses to meet the issue plumbly and
squarely. Temporizing will do no good,
if the OBJECT be to arrest the tide OF un-
Warrantable aggression upon the personal
| liberty of the citizen. Democrats who
now unite with the Prohibition party will,
after a while, clamor for federal prohi-
tory law, and endeavOr to force the Dem
ocratic party to insert such plank in its
platform, and falling in that, they will fly
of at tangent from the Democratic
party. Prohibitionists regard their
hobby as being the paramount issue, and
so believing, they are ready TO sacrifice
the integrity of their party to secure it's
enactment. The Express steers it's course
by the national Democratic platform, and
denies the right of state convention to
alter or annul such national plat
form; and those of our contemporaries
that have sneered at the Democracy of
the Express are respectfully invited to
examine the national platform or 1884 re-
speeding prohibition. 1t is bran new
idea that man or a newspaper is TO be
disrated, as Democrat, simply for ed-
herring in good faith to the national plat
form of the party, and refusing to reCog-
nize the right of state convention to
change or annul the national platform
"This is the head and front of our Offend
ing" yet for this adherence to the letter
and spirit of the Democratic nationaliplatrS
form the Express is to be eXcommunf-
Gated from the Democratic party, with
candle and bell, by newspapers that repus
date the national platform. g
The Express offers no apology flor
drunkenness. It brands it as brutal
izing and degrading habit, andSw0Hid. re-
ioice to see it stopped by stringent laws
for Furnishing drunkards and by socially
ostracising them. If the present laws
are not stringent enough to stop drunk
enness, let the Legislature make them so,
but do not punish sober men because g
few men get drunk. The law should not
license any except sober and Teputa-
BILE men, and should cancel the license
where party violates the law in selling
liquor to miners and habitual drunkards.
These laws would fall under the head of
regulations, and would be to the advan-
tage of reputable retailers as we'll as to
the benefit of society. The Express OPP
poses prohibition because it is undemO-
cratic in principle, nugatory in practice
and vexatious to the citizens. The ma
tiOnal Democratic platform of 1884 is the
bed rock on which it builds it's opposition
to prohibition.-[ San Antonio Express,
~
DR.. Arch Cochran, in his address yes
terday. reasoned that "American liberty
was to do as you please so long as it did
not hurt the other fellow" reads the re-
port. In this the Herald agrees with the
Doctor. The principle of prohibition is
consistent with his idea OF liberty. Both
allow the citizen to take a dose of stryCh-
nine, but deny him the privilege Of giving
it to his neighbOr; neither would the law
undertake to punish man for attempted
self-destructioR, but would hang him
for the destruction (by any other
means than whisky of his fellow-man;
both liberty and prohibition allow man
to drink arsenic as a beverage or eat
spoiled meat, but would deny him the
right to sell either to neighbor for bev-
erage or food. Neither does this pro-
posed amendment propose to interfere
with mans liberty except where it
affects "the other fellow" A man may
drink whisky, as he can strychnine, but
the law will prohibit him from giving or
selling it to another as a beverage; that's
all Dallas Herald.
-
An appropriate prayer for the opening
of the nti-prohibition convention at Dali
las yesterday would have been:
Our fathers, Anheuser-Busch, who art
in ST. Louis, and are of glorious memory
since the date of thy proclamation to the
liquor dealers of Texas, thy kingdom
! come, thy will be done in Texas as in ST.
Louis. Give US day by day our daily
beer, with whisky straight and
cocktails, and forgive US all the
debauchery, crime, wasted lives and
fortunes, caused by our glorious traffic;
and especially, we beseech you to forgive
US the hypocrisy of this convention in
claiming to be Democratic, temperate,
moral and religious, as we forgive all in
the name of personal liberty. Lead Us
not into dry places but deliver US from
prohibition, for thine is the kingdom, the
power and the money, at the present.
manufacturing News.
-
The conclusion was reached by the
convention that an earnest and eXhauS-
tive campaign be organizedist once. The
organization is TO be minute, far-reaChing
and perfect, reaching as well the districts
as counties ana precincts. All Of the
speakers in the ranks of the anti-prohi-
bitionists are pledged to work when and
where the chairman orders them to work.
The selection of the Hon. George Clark
for this position is an earnest that there
is to be no child's play in the campaign,
is an earnest and ability, devotion and
experience will all be brought to bear on
the fight. Surely with such champions
as Clark and Carroll no voter in Texas
need cast his ballot on the 4th of August
in ignorance of any single principle in
volVed in the STRUGGLED Waco Exam
iner.
When local prohibition was the issue
almost every prominent leader now in
the prohibition camp were shouting
themselves hoarse proclaiming it undem-
ocratic, unconstitutional, sumptuary, de-
structive to personal liberty, and blight
on revenue and general prosperity.
Since state prohibition has become the
issue, they apply all their stock of cant
- II.